While installing Ubuntu system, the wizard gives an option to encrypt the home folder. This simple tutorial is going to show you how to encrypt your Home Folder after installed Ubuntu. This is for Ubuntu 12.04, but also works on other Ubuntu releases, include Ubuntu 12.10.

Preparation:

1. Install ecryptfs utils, it is available in Ubuntu Software Center.

2. A user must be logout before you can encrypt his/her home folder, so you need to temporary create an Administrator user account if you have single user on Ubuntu. Go to System Settings -> User Accounts -> Unlock -> Add an administrator user account

Encrypt the Home Folder:

Here I’m going to encrypt the home folder of user ht:

1. Log out the current user session and log in with the new created user account. Hit Ctrl+Alt+T to launch a terminal window. Then copy and paste this command into terminal and hit run:

sudo ecryptfs-migrate-home -u ht

Change ht to your user-name. This command will encrypt the home folder of user ht.

2. Once this is done, log out and back in with ht user account and complete encrypt process by clicking “Run this action now” on this pop-up window:

If you don’t see this dialog, run this command instead:

ecryptfs-add-passphrase

3. If everything’s ok, go to File system -> /home directoy and remove the temporary folder created for ht. Also remove the temporary account you created.